How old is Kate Adie and how did her career begin?

She was adopted as a baby by Sunderland pharmacist John Adie and his wife Maud.

Kate went to Sunderland Church High School then University of Newcastle upon Tyne, where she gained a degree in Scandinavian Studies and starred in several Gilbert and Sullivan productions

Her career with the Beeb began as a station assistant at BBC Radio Durham.

She then became a producer for Radio Bristol, where her colleagues included Michael Buerk.

The journalist then switched to television, directing outside broadcasts.

She was a reporter for regional TV News in Plymouth and Southampton, and joined the national news team in 1976.

What stories did Kate Adie cover at the Beeb?

Serving as the Beeb's Chief News correspondent from 1989 until 2003, Kate has travelled extensively.

She reported on a series of kidnaps in Sardinia and was arrested in Belgrade trying to gather material about General Tito.

In the early 90s, she reported from the Balkans again in the early 1990s, and also from Russia, United States, Africa, and Northern Ireland.

She was with the Coalition forces as they chased Saddam Hussein's troops out of Kuwait in 1991.

But the two foreign assignments she is most often associated with are the American bombing of the Libyan capital Tripoli in 1986 and the 1989 Chinese authorities' killing of protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Kate's "close-to-the-action" approach once caused her to be shot at by an "irate Libyan". The bullet scraped her collar bone but she did not suffer permanent injury.

She has written four books, including her autobiography, The Kindness of Strangers.

Kate was once shot at by an 'irate Libyan' but did not suffer permanent injury

How was she involved in the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege?

Kate Adie's big break came in 1980 with the siege of the Iranian embassy in London.

Between April 30 and May 5, a group of six gunmen - members of Arabs of KSA group - stormed the building, taking 26 people hostage.

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As one of the reporters on duty in the newsroom when the siege began, Kate was sent to the scene.

While the SAS went to rescue hostages cooped up inside, Adie described the events unfolding to millions of viewers while crouched behind a car door.

Her coverage of the event broke new ground for television.

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